If you’ve lived in D.C. for any amount of time, you’ve probably seen at least a little bit of Rock Creek Park. It’s the big one right in the middle. You can’t miss it.

You might have gone on a short hike, ogled the pretty horses, explored the historic buildings, or wondered when the Carter Barron Amphitheater will reopen (we’re waiting, NPS). But have you really seen the park? All of it? Have you taken a moment to study the Civil War sites and appreciate the Nature Center? Have you gandered the waterfalls and traversed the bridges? Have you played a round of golf or pedaled along Beach Drive?

For the past year that’s what our photographer, Darrow Montgomery, set out to do: To see the park in the way that only he can. As the city is built up more and more every day, Rock Creek Park stands as a natural sanctuary in the center of it all. 

The rules for this project were simple: Photos had to be within the park’s D.C. boundaries (no going into Maryland, though we excluded Malcolm X Park, which is technically part of Rock Creek Park), and the subject had to evoke a response from the guy clicking the shutter. 

Montgomery came back with hundreds of photos documenting the dozens of trips he took with his speckled four-legged companion to the 1,754-acre urban oasis. We’ve whittled the raw material down to 30 images that show the park’s untouched wild beauty, the encroaching built environment, and the moments where those two elements crash into each other.

In many ways, this essay is an antidote to last year’s piece on D.C.’s iconic liquor stores.

“Both are useful places,” Montgomery says. “But this seemed much harder because I’m not much of a nature photographer.” 

We’ll let you be the judge of that.

—Mitch Ryals